Volunteers from Gareloch Riding for the Disabled have joined MSPs, Tesco colleagues and representatives from greenspace scotland at a celebration at the Scottish Parliament last week.

The event was organised to mark the success of the supermarket's flagship community scheme, Bags of Help.

To mark the success of the project so far, Tesco and greenspace scotland invited representatives from almost 40 groups to an exclusive Parliamentary event at Holyrood.

Riding for the Disabled Gareloch Branch, which received funding, was proud to be part of the celebration.

Tony McElroy, Tesco’s Head of Communications in Scotland, said: “To have awarded this amount of money to thousands of groups all over the UK is a fantastic achievement – and it’s all down to our customers.

“Bags of Help continues to be a great success and we wanted to get some of our funding recipients involved in helping us celebrate. Each of the groups has a big part to play in their communities and it’s important that we brought everyone together to recognise that.

“It’s a real privilege to see community projects thriving thanks to the funding.”

Since launching in 2015, the scheme has awarded more than £48million to more than 13,000 projects all over the UK. In Scotland, In Scotland, more than 2000 groups have shared in £6million.

At the event, the groups – who are all Bags of Help funding recipients – got the chance to meet their local MPs and MSPs and to hear how the funding has impacted upon recipients all over the country.

Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.

Tesco works with environmental charities greenspace scotland and Groundwork to put the funding into action.

Emma Halliday, community enabler coordinator at greenspace scotland, said: “Bags of Help is breathing life into community projects all over Scotland.

“Working on the frontline of these projects, alongside Tesco, we see projects going from an idea, right through to completion. The funding is having a real impact on communities and this event will raise awareness of that.”

Bags of Help funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp